Cal State system pushes Obamacare for students

If California — with its huge, diverse population of uninsured residents — is a test for Obamacare in the United States, then the California State University system is a test for Obamacare in California.

The university’s 437,000 students hit a demographic sweet spot for the health care law. The system serves a large number of young adult students, too old for their parents’ insurance but still young enough to be the healthy, uncomplicated clients insurance companies need. Nonwhite students make up about two-thirds of the student body, and a third are Hispanic or Latino — another group the administration is counting on to get coverage through the Affordable Care Act.

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Cal State system officials believe that tens of thousands of students on their 23 campuses could get insurance under the health care law. And they also hope that the students learn about the new health insurance options and help their friends and family members enroll. So, fueled by a $1.25 million grant from the state’s insurance exchange, they’re starting a massive outreach campaign.

Walter Zelman, chairman of the Department of Health Science at California State University, Los Angeles, is leading the effort. Two decades ago, when President Bill Clinton tried to overhaul American health care, Zelman, then a White House health policy adviser, was deeply involved.

But by the time the Affordable Care Act passed, Zelman was a continent away from Washington. Now he is poised to play a different but equally important role as Obamacare goes from theory to practice. He might not have drawn up this particular reform blueprint, but the success of the plans hinges on enrolling exactly the people Zelman is trying to reach.

Many public college systems share Cal State’s demographics and have high numbers of students who could benefit from information about the law, Zelman said. But few colleges are trying as hard as the Cal State system to tell their students about Obamacare. The federal Education Department hopes more will follow.

So far, the department’s work to inform the public about the law has been low key, in part because Republican lawmakers are deeply skeptical of its involvement. Telling people about the Affordable Care Act has consumed a “very minimal” amount of time and resources, Education Secretary Arne Duncan wrote in a letter to Republican senators last month.

Still, Duncan himself has met at least twice in recent weeks with groups representing K-12 and higher education to encourage schools and students to spread the word about how the law works and whom it could help. Zelman says his work has two goals: getting the university system’s students signed up for health insurance, and then serving as an outreach model for the rest of higher education.

“This is the population Covered California needs,” he said, referring to the state health insurance exchange.

Many colleges, particularly those that mostly enroll 18-to-22-year-olds, have long required their students to have health insurance. Cal State does not: “We couldn’t,” Zelman said. Before the Affordable Care Act, “it would be imposing a mandate to buy insurance on people who were making $20,000 a year,” he said. “They can’t do it. You couldn’t even conceive of it.”